Judge won't toss contempt charge against dad who took daughter to Mass

May 07, 2010

A Cook County judge has ruled that a father must stand trial for contempt after taking his daughter to Mass at a Roman Catholic church, defying a court order that barred him from exposing the 3-year-old to any "non-Jewish" religious activity.

The injunction was imposed after Joseph Reyes sent photographs of his daughter's baptism to his estranged wife, who is raising the child Jewish. The couple was embroiled in a contentious divorce proceeding at the time.

Reyes responded to the order by asking television news crews to film him in December taking his daughter to Mass at Holy Name Cathedral in downtown Chicago. Reyes, a student at John Marshall Law School, said he defied the order because it was unconstitutional.

His lawyer, Joel Brodsky, filed a motion to dismiss the contempt charge arguing the order was "too vague to determine what constitutes exposing Ela Reyes to any religion other than the Jewish religion," and that "the court cannot decide what constitutes the Jewish religion."

Associate Judge Elizabeth Loredo-Rivera said courts in Illinois can "adjudicate religious disputes, in the best interest of the child."

"That's a scary sentence," Brodsky said. "This decision from a religious perspective is a direct assault on the First Amendment."

The restrictions on Reyes' church attendance with his daughter ended when the divorce was ruled upon last month. That ruling permitting Reyes to take his daughter to church services during his visitation time and granting visitation on Christmas and Easter.